The present disclosure relates, in general, to polythioaminals with applications as carriers or delivery vehicles for therapeutic agents or other small molecule cargo.
Polymer carriers are promising carriers for therapeutic agents in medical applications because polymer composition is highly tailorable, allowing for the capability to tune the polymer's hydrophobic or hydrophilic character, the polymer-therapeutic interaction, the release mechanism and degradability. Despite the numerous advantages, implementation of a polymeric strategy presents its own unique set of challenges. For instance, access to therapeutic-polymer conjugates may require exposure to hazardous organic solvents or reagents, multiple synthetic and/or purification steps, and cytotoxic effects elicited from the resulting polymer (depending on the size).
Furthermore, the life time of the polymer carrier is relatively short in aqueous media. In aqueous solution at room temperature, certain known polymers will degrade over the course of 93 hours, and under physiological conditions (increased temperature and salt content), the polymers degrade much more quickly. While degradation and drug release within this time frame is advantageous for the treatment of certain ailments, other diseases, such as ovarian cancer, require prolonged drug circulation and slow drug release.
Therefore, a stable polymer carrier that is easy to synthesize and couple to therapeutic agents is needed.